wtf is monero?
Glad you asked
Monero (XMR) is a new privacy-centric coin using the CryptoNote protocol (see below for more information). The open source reference implementation of CryptoNote was coded from scratch based on the CryptoNote reference implementation, and is not a fork of Bitcoin.
Monero aims to be a fungible and untraceable digital medium of exchange. It intrinsically has a higher degree of privacy than Bitcoin or any of its various forks. It was launched on April 18, 2014 (preannounced and no premine/IPO/etc.).
More information:
Why Monero matters,
The Three Pillars of Monero